Spray Protection for Landing on Aluminum Ships

The proposed program seeks to continue the development of a novel spray cooling thermal management system that protects aluminum flight decks from the thermal impact of MV-22 operations. The MV-22 Osprey aircraft is a critical asset for the Navy that is seeing expanded operational roles in military and humanitarian missions. Operations on amphibious warfare and other Navy ships have led to concerns about the thermomechanical effects in the flight deck from exhaust plume impingement. Research programs under ONR and DARPA sponsorships have sought protection solutions to be retrofit onto steel flight decks (LHA/LHD and LSD). At MV-22 exhaust plume temperatures, flight decks constructed from aluminum alloy suffer material degradation in addition to excessive thermally induced stresses and presents a unique challenge. The proposed spray cooling system – named SPLASH (Spray Protection for Landing on Aluminum SHips) – uses synthetic coolant spray to efficiently absorb and remove heat from the flight deck. The concept uses an array of nozzles positioned within the corrugated channels of the existing deck extrusion to direct coolant spray onto the underside of the top face. Flight Deck Tie Downs are spray cooled from underneath by a contained nozzle assembly mounted below each component. The system is designed to operate completely below the deck’s top surface so that the risk to flight deck operations and personnel are reduced or eliminated. Previous analysis shows the capability of this system to maintain flight deck temperatures below the objective requirement for deck planking (212°F/100°C) and Flight Deck Tie Downs (149°F/65°C), when subjected to MV-22 nacelle exhaust. The proposed work will develop and demonstrate all “in-the-deck” system components under simulated MV-22 thermal loading at intermediate-scale (Base period) and develop the full cooling loop and system design (Option period).  A successful program will demonstrate the ability of the SPLASH system to meet Navy objectives for unmitigated MV-22 operations on aluminum flight decks and develop full system designs ready for large-scale fabrication and testing in Phase III.